Ben Wallace is a warrior. He changes the game, disrupts the opponents offense, plays beyond his age and physical talents. Why the hell can't he make FTs? Can someone coach him? His time at the line may cost him the hall of fame.

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To late to teach him now.
Ben FT% for his career is 41.7% and this year it is 40.4%. His best year was actually the 03-04 championship season when he shot 49%.

The problem is Ben's FT shooting is getting worst now as he missing wide right and wide left and even the opposing announcers are laughing about it. As bad as Ben is, Kwame is actually worst at 37.3%, but he has not had the chance to experience hack-a-Kwame yet.

Really guys? It's 2010, this team is in the toilet, and Ben Wallace's ability to make FT's is THAT perplexing?

The problem with hack-a-Ben is that idiot coaches pull him out of the game and all it does is open up the floor for the opposing team to run the paint at will while he's on the bench. That goes a long way toward helping the other team catch us, when they don't have any resistance in the lane.

Fouling Ben just slows the game down and actually plays in our favor whether Ben makes or not. The other team can't run fast breaks when they are constantly stopping play. If they had any kind of rhythm or momentum, it's now gone. Furthermore, they STILL have to deal with Ben in the lane. Hack-a-Ben has never worked and it only looks successful when the coach pulls him and allows the other team to do whatever they want offensively for the next 2 mins.

Just like Hack-a-Shaq never worked...it's a bad strategy and only works when you pull the targeted player out of the game allowing the opponent much more offensive freedom until they bring him back in.

It's not rocket science...it's just panic.

The coach employing it should be ashamed of himself and the coach falling for it is a fool.

Really guys? It's 2010, this team is in the toilet, and Ben Wallace's ability to make FT's is THAT perplexing?

The problem with hack-a-Ben is that idiot coaches pull him out of the game and all it does is open up the floor for the opposing team to run the paint at will while he's on the bench. That goes a long way toward helping the other team catch us, when they don't have any resistance in the lane.

Fouling Ben just slows the game down and actually plays in our favor whether Ben makes or not. The other team can't run fast breaks when they are constantly stopping play. If they had any kind of rhythm or momentum, it's now gone. Furthermore, they STILL have to deal with Ben in the lane. Hack-a-Ben has never worked and it only looks successful when the coach pulls him and allows the other team to do whatever they want offensively for the next 2 mins.

Just like Hack-a-Shaq never worked...it's a bad strategy and only works when you pull the targeted player out of the game allowing the opponent much more offensive freedom until they bring him back in.

It's not rocket science...it's just panic.

The coach employing it should be ashamed of himself and the coach falling for it is a fool.

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Depends on how far behind the team is for the opposing coach to employ it. When Popovich tried it last week they were down more than 15 points and although a lot of points were shaved off, as Ben went 2-8, before being pulled, it was not enough to make up the difference. But last night, the game was close and Nelson figured he could squeeze out a rare victory over the offensively challenge Pistons and it worked.

When I used to go to Pistons games really early in time to see the guys do their 1st warmups Ben Wallace used to can free throw after free throw. Even using an oversized training ball. So he can make them, just not under pressure. Its all mental.

When I used to go to Pistons games really early in time to see the guys do their 1st warmups Ben Wallace used to can free throw after free throw. Even using an oversized training ball. So he can make them, just not under pressure. Its all mental.

Fouling Ben just slows the game down and actually plays in our favor whether Ben makes or not. The other team can't run fast breaks when they are constantly stopping play. If they had any kind of rhythm or momentum, it's now gone. Furthermore, they STILL have to deal with Ben in the lane.

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You make good points. What you're basically saying is that it's not as cut and dry as one would think because the other team's odds of scoring go do when they are forced into a half court set. However, I still think that it does make marginal sense for them for the following reasons...

Since it is easy to figure out what Ben's expected value is from an intentional foul, I'll do the calculation to see what the other team's shooting percentage would have to be for it to make sense for them.

Ben's expected value on a trip to the line = .404 + .404 = .808 points.

Overall, opponents average a TS% of .548 against us, or 1.096 points per possession.

So, on it's face, it would seem that every time teams hack Ben, they would be gaining about 0.3 points per possession and they would be extending the game by many more possessions than if they let us milk the clock. If a team is down 5 points, it would take over 15 possessions for them to catch up on average. It would still would be a good strategy for them, although the odds of coming from behind are still small.

For hack-a-Ben to be a losing strategy for the other team in the long-run, their TS% would have to drop from .548 to .404 or lower. The missing piece of data for us to answer this question is:

How man points per possession (or TS% x 2) do teams average when they are in a half court set and Ben Wallace is patrolling the paint? I'm guessing their TS% drops from .548 to about .450 or so.

My conclusion is that leaving Ben in the game is an OK strategy for us. Taking him out is probably slightly better. The Pistons organization should have the data that we are missing.

Yep that is where I got it from....shame that not a single NBA player does it this way..unless they are afraid of being laugh out of the arena.....maybe Joe should have had Rick hired to teach this to Ben while his Jon Barry was on roster back in 02.

You make good points. What you're basically saying is that it's not as cut and dry as one would think because the other team's odds of scoring go do when they are forced into a half court set. However, I still think that it does make marginal sense for them for the following reasons...

Since it is easy to figure out what Ben's expected value is from an intentional foul, I'll do the calculation to see what the other team's shooting percentage would have to be for it to make sense for them.

Ben's expected value on a trip to the line = .404 + .404 = .808 points.

Overall, opponents average a TS% of .548 against us, or 1.096 points per possession.

So, on it's face, it would seem that every time teams hack Ben, they would be gaining about 0.3 points per possession and they would be extending the game by many more possessions than if they let us milk the clock. If a team is down 5 points, it would take over 15 possessions for them to catch up on average. It would still would be a good strategy for them, although the odds of coming from behind are still small.

For hack-a-Ben to be a losing strategy for the other team in the long-run, their TS% would have to drop from .548 to .404 or lower. The missing piece of data for us to answer this question is:

How man points per possession (or TS% x 2) do teams average when they are in a half court set and Ben Wallace is patrolling the paint? I'm guessing their TS% drops from .548 to about .450 or so.

My conclusion is that leaving Ben in the game is an OK strategy for us. Taking him out is probably slightly better. The Pistons organization should have the data that we are missing.

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I would suppose that it also has do to with what Dre suggested...how far down the opponent is. I haven't down the research on this....moreover, how could you..but, I'd be interested in knowing the score and by how many points the pistons are leading when the "strategy" is employed.